James H. "Jim" Wagner

Vero Beach, Fla. - James H. "Jim" Wagner, loving and beloved husband, brother, father and friend who never met a stranger, a real estate broker who admitted that though he may not have entered every single family house in West Hartford, Connecticut, he was familiar with those few he hadn't, died Sept. 22, 2020, at home in Vero Beach, Fla., aged 94. Jim was born in Chicago Jan. 15 1926, to Matthew and Anita Wagner. The family lived in Western Springs and Berwick where Jim started high school. During summers he visited his mother's parents in Akron, Ohio and his father's in Culbertson, Nebraska. He liked to travel by train, enjoyed riding horses on the Nebraska farm, but always loved cars almost as much as he loved people. In 1942 when his father took ill, Jim drove his parents and sister in a Ford Model A with only the hand emergency brake working to Portland, Connecticut, where they briefly lived with a paternal uncle and aunt. They relocated to Bristol where he started his junior year at Bristol High School. He was to graduate in 1944, and recalled that knowing that they would be drafted because they would turn eighteen before their last semester began, he and his friend Bob Theriens enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps "because we wanted hot meals and to sleep inside if we made it home." He was awarded his high school diploma in absentia. He said that while they were petitioning to be on the same flight crew, Mr. Theriens died in a training crash. Jim briefly trained bomber crews as gunner/engineers, then served with the Eighth Army Air Force in England, by his report only crewing in a B-17 to drop food to starving civilians. He served in the U.S. Army Reserves well into the 1950s, becoming an officer, and much later fought tears while watching the film, "Memphis Belle," with a son, and at another time, with his granddaughter. Jim attended North Central College in Naperville, Ill. where his parents had met, meeting his wife of 69 years, Cynthia Beardsley Wagner; they wed May 21, 1948. He graduated from the University of Connecticut in business administration in 1951, by which time he was managing a service station, having previously worked construction on campus as a short order cook and earning small fees boxing. He then served as a manufacturer's sales representative until his next door neighbor, Robert Barrows, convinced him to take a job selling homes. He worked for Barrows and Wallace, managing several branch offices as it grew. He then briefly had his own self-named company, soon becoming a partner in RW Barrows with Robert and Lawrence Barrows. He later worked for the TR Preston Company and eventually Merrill Lynch, before retiring. Jim had many repeat customers who appreciated his knowledge of homes, his kind and friendly way and his desire not to simply sell a house, but to find the house his clients would fall in love with on first sight. In retirement he worked for the census and sought part time jobs at golf courses so that he could golf for free, having often stated to his children's entreaties, "I'm not cheap, I'm frugal." He aspired to his final part-time job, selling cars, from age four. Mr. Wagner had become an avid sailor while briefly unemployed after the war, and the Wagners had a succession of sailboats named Cinjim. While the family had recreational cruises, Jim crewed from time to time on friends' boats in open ocean races from New England as far south as The Bahamas. He was an avid golfer well into his 80s, and organized games of bridge, table tennis and billiards at Indian Rivers Estates, excelling at all, until the pandemic. Having raised their children in West Hartford, Mr. and Mrs. Wagner lived briefly in Farmington, and retired to Groton Long Point, where they were members of the GLP Volunteer Fire Department police. They "snowbirded" to various Florida Keys and Fort Pierce, moving to Vero Beach in 2004. Mr. Wagner is predeceased by his wife and their daughter, Ellen Kadden. He is survived by his sister Kathryn Noonan; a daughter Deborah Jo Wagner; two sons, James H. Jr. and Gary Wagner; Gary's wife Lisa and Ellen's husband Jack; four grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and two step great-grandchildren; eight nephews and nieces; and many friends. He also leaves a turbocharged car, the brakes of which work. In lieu of flowers, please donate to Feeding America, The Leukemia And Lymphoma Society, Doctors Without Borders or any charitable food pantry or medical clinic.